Blarney has welcomed many visitors over the years. Some have left a record of their visit for posterity, usually in words, but sometimes in visual media; a drawing, a print, watercolour or oil painting. Usually, the subject chosen was the romantic ruins of the castle and its surrounds, more rare were the people that the artists encountered during their visit. When one of the greatest artists of his age painted a large oil painting of a celebration of the locals, little did they think that it would become a celebrated masterpiece almost two centuries later.
The Painter
The artist was Daniel Maclise, born in Cork in 1806, who earned his fame in London as a portrait painter of eminent Victorians, but even more as the pre-eminent history painter of his age, who was especially selected to decorate the new Houses of Parliament with two giant murals depicting the nation’s greatest military victories; the Death of Nelson at Trafalgar and the Meeting of Wellington and Blucher on the Battlefield of Waterloo. As a boy in Cork, he received some training, but first caught public attention when he managed to draw a quick sketch of Sir Walter Scott who was visiting Cork at the time. The sketch was put on display on the window of Bolster’s bookshop on Patrick Street, where it attracted so much attention that the proprietor ran off hundreds of copies of prints for sale, so great was the demand.
Shortly afterwards, the artist left for London to establish a career for himself. He quickly integrated into a colony of fellow Corkmen in exile, including Thomas Crofton Croker, William Maginn and Francis Sylvester O’Mahony, who wrote under the pen name, Father Prout. He drew their portraits which were published in Frazer’s Magazine, to which they all contributed. He was admitted as a student to the Royal Academy, a prerequisite for any artist aspiring to make a career out of their talent. Such was his progress that he was awarded a gold medal as best student in his year. Later he was elected a full member of the Academy. With his position established, Maclise decided that it was time to take a short holiday back to his native city. In autumn 1832 he arrived back in Cork, spent a few days in Killarney, and before returning to London, decided to pay a visit to Blarney. There, he was invited by the parish priest to attend a party on. All Hallows Eve where he could observe the festivities of Halloween. It was to have far reaching consequences for the young artist.
The Priest
The parish priest at the time was Fr Mat Horgan, a native of the parish, having been born in Ballinaraha around 1776. As a child, he would have listened to the older generation telling of the great hurling match played along the banks of the river Martin, organised by two local farmers for the benefit of the landlord’s son and heir, Charles Putland from Dublin. All the great hurlers of the county were invited to participate; those from east of Blarney to play on the team sponsored by Roland Davies of Dawstown, those to the west on Denis Horgan’s team. The game went on until nightfall when Cronin from the Boggeraghs scored the only and winning goal. Years later Fr Mat recorded the story for posterity.
Having served as curate in Myross, Fr Mat arrived in Blarney in 1817 with a mission from his Bishop: to build a new parish church to replace the old penal days chapel in Knocknasuff. He soon got a group of workmen organised and the chapel was ready to be dedicated in 1818. As a lover and scholar of the Irish language, Fr Mat had the dedication plaque carved in the ancient Gaelic script and it is still to be seen today, safe from the elements in its new position inside the church. Fr Mat followed up this achievement by building another, larger chapel in Whitechurch, which was completed in 1822.
Fr Mat was a fervent supporter of Daniel O’Connell and his campaign for Catholic Emancipation. To celebrate the passing of the act into law, Fr Mat decided to add a belfry to his chapel in Whitechurch which would have been forbidden by law until then. He decided to build it in imitation of the ancient Irish round towers. Speculation abounded as to the origins of the towers, with some antiquarians ascribing them to Danish fortifications, while others more fancifully describing them as Phoenician fire towers. Fr Mat was clear that they had served as belfries to the Celtic monasteries and to give practical effect to his theory, built one next to his new church in Whitechurch. On its completion in October 1832, it became a curiosity for travellers to come and gaze at it, and many letters appeared in local newspapers both critical and admiring of its design. Might Daniel Maclise have got to hear of it and made the journey out to Whitechurch where he met its designer and builder? Probably not; he was an inveterate sketcher and no surviving drawing of the tower remains among his papers. But one never knows for certain.
Fr Mat was a lover of all things Irish, its history, antiquities, language, sports, pastimes, music and customs. He composed poems in Irish and translated the odes of Horace from Latin into Irish. According to one biographer, “he patronised to the last the now extinct seanchidhes and scealuidhes (or story tellers), one of whom, named Sullivan, he maintained permanently as one of his household. An enthusiastic admirer, too, of our national music, his house was the resort of every wandering piper – one or more of whom always attended his festive gatherings.”
He very much saw himself as the leader of his flock, not just looking after their spiritual welfare, but leading his parishioners in assembly to pass resolutions in support of native manufacturing, tithe abolition, and repeal of the Act of Union. “He preceded his flock in every procession, lectured in their places of assembly, and was foremost in addressing and encouraging them in their soirees and reunions, and in all their innocent gaieties and amusements he participated”.
Fr Mat was noted for his hospitality. Many of the celebrities of the day who came to visit Blarney made their way to his humble cottage in Ballygibbon to hear him expound on the lore and legends of the locality. Although it happened a few years after Maclise’s visit, a flavour of the welcome can be gained from this account penned by Samuel Carter Hall on his visit to Fr Mat in 1840: “The good priest had never a shilling to spend; so, his custom was whenever strangers were expected, to levy contributions on his neighbours. On this occasion the call was entirely successful. Seven boiled legs of mutton were placed on the supper-table, with a vast accumulation of etceteras; and the whisky punch was labelled out of a milk churn. A barn had been fitted up with tables to seat a hundred guests, the seats were full; the walls were hung with evergreens and flowers, and, of course, the Céad Míle Fáilte stretched from one end of the banqueting hall to the other.”
The above excerpt was taken from a much larger article titled ‘The Painter, The Priest and Snap Apple Night’by John Mulcahy and published in Issue No 13 ‘Old Blarney’ Journal.
Back issues of ‘Old Blarney’ are available at lectures, or by contacting www.blarneyhistory.ie.